Simple Progressive Watercolors

I have been interested in watercolors for a while now.  I have seen several artists online that do work all in one color of paint.  So I decided to try and create my own version, a very simplified version of course.

Here are all the supplies that you will need if you want to try these yourself:

• A piece of watercolor paper or another type of canvas meant for watercolors.
• One large brush for your first few washes.
• One small brush for the more detailed washes.
• One color of watercolor paint, or a mixture of different colors if you want to make your own.
• And finally, water of course!

First start out with a light wash with your large brush.  Let that dry completely before you begin your next wash.

Now, choose a shape or pattern you want to use for the rest of your painting.  Keep it small at first so you can get in a lot of washes, that way you can get your color nice and dark toward the end.  Just create an outline of your shape and paint from the outline to the edge of your paper.  Be sure to let only your first wash show through inside your shape.

Continue like this until your shape gets all the way to the edge. Just be sure to let each wash dry completely before you start the next one, this project can take some patience. If you are really in a hurry you can try a cool hair dryer, but I don't really recommend it.

Here are a few of the other pieces I have used this technique on.  What do you think? Is this a project you might want to try?  Leave me a comment and let me know how it goes!

Washer necklaces

First of all, I would like to apologize for my long absence in the blogging world recently!  I have been preoccupied with school, but no more of that because I have GRADUATED!! So I fully intend to get back into the swing of things around here!

Awhile back I found this project on Pinterest, it is really easy and very affordable.  It's only washers, scrapbook paper and a special type of glue that dries with dimension. I was so excited that it really turned out as good as it looked online!  I ended up making them for all my friends for Christmas.

You can find the full tutorial that I used here.

Jewelry Design: Silversmithing

The last couple weeks in my jewelry class I have been working on silversmithing.  Basically, we use a torch to solder the pieces of silver together to make the different pieces of jewelry.

This is the ring I made, we had a long piece of silver that we cut and shaped into the actual ring portion, then we attached the bezel cup and later put in the stone.

This bracelet is made out of the same type of silver, and assembled much the same way just on a much larger scale.

I shaped the loop of this pendent, again out of the same silver, and then soldered it to the back of the bezel cup.

These earrings are my favorite out this set.  I just drew out a pattern on a piece of paper and shaped the silver to match it and attached the bezel cups for the stones to the inside of the design.  All the other pieces we all had to pretty much do the same, but I loved getting to be more creative with these!

I hope you like these, and soon I will have more fun to share from my class!

Jewelry Design: Wire Wrapping (Part 2)

First of all, I want to apologize for my long absence from the blogging world.  It is very sad, but I have been incredibly busy with work, classes, and homework :(

Okay, on to the good stuff!

I have more fun jewelry to show you from my class!!  If you didn't see my first post about my jewelry class, check it out here!

These are both more examples of wire wrapping, this time they are pendants:

This pendent is a wrapped black cabochon, and it matches the rest of the set that I posted pictures of from my first class.

This is a wrapped marble pendant.  The picture does not do this one justice (mostly because I'm not that great of a photographer, but I'm learning slowly but surely).  I like how this one doesn't really have a front or back, it pretty much looks good from any angle.

Well, I promise not to stay away as long this time!  Keep checking back for more pictures from my Jewelry Design class adventures!

Jewelry Design: Wire Wrapping

So in my final semester of college, I pretty much was only lacking elective credits... so what class did I choose?? Metal and Jewelry Design of course!  So be prepared to see a lot of pictures of my projects in the next few months!

Today was our first class and we made a matching set including:

A bracelet . . .

A pair of earrings (with hand made earring hangers) . . .

And a ring!

I was surprised at how much we did in just one class!  They taught us a technique called wire wrapping where we took a thick gauge wire and literally wrapped it around the beads.  It was a lot easier than I expected, and a lot of fun!

I can't wait to see what's in store for us next week!

Glass Marble Cross

On Wednesday, my best friend and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby in honor of the end of Summer and the new school year.  We were looking around in the aisle with all the wooden frames and such that you can paint. Well I found this wooden cross and had the idea to put some of those flat clear marbles around the center.

I stained the cross portion and then decided it would be better to paint the base.  Next I attached the
marbles with tacky glue.  I had to let them dry for a while with the cross laying down because when I stood it up the marbles started to slid off.  But once it was dry the marbles stayed on just fine.

I used this cool stain marker on this project.  I found it a while ago at Michael's I believe.  Anyway, it has lasted a long time and worked on so many projects, I love it!!  I need to find more of them in other colors, they are soooo much easier than regular stain!

Finally I decided it still looked to plain so I added some paint details.  And Ta-Da!  What do you think?

P.S.  I apologize in advance if my posting is kind of hit and miss for a while... the semester is starting to get into full swing and I will unfortunately be busy with homework a lot in the near future.  It is my last semester so things will be busy, however I will still do my best to keep up with you all in the blogging world!

No-Sew Ribbon Headband

A few months ago I saw some where that you can make your own stretchy headbands with a hair tie, so I thought I would experiment with it and this is what I came up with!

What you will need:

• Wide ribbon (I used a silky, flexible one, but I'm sure pretty much any ribbon with work)
• Elastic hair tie
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Small decorative ribbon (optional)

First cut a piece of your ribbon that will go across your head from just below the back of your ears.  I think mine was about 8 inches long.

Then, cut your hair tie (at the seam if it has one) so that it is a straight piece of elastic. Next, attach one end of your hair tie to one end of your ribbon with a bead of hot glue.

Glue and fold over one side of the ribbon, then the same with the other.  This will help the ribbon to fold neatly, and not curl, when you wear it.

Then repeat these steps on the other side of your ribbon and hair tie. If you don't have any decorative ribbon to wrap around the seams then you are finished!

If you do have small riboon, measure how much you will need by wrapping it around the seam between the ribbon and the hair tie and cut it to size leaving a little extra on the end.  Then put a bead of hot glue down the underside of the ribbon and attach it, folding the raw ends under before you glue them down.

Viola! I really love it, and the elastic hair tie helps it not to slip! I think this has to be my favorite blog project yet, what do you think?

Vase Paint

Have you seen those tutorials that are floating around about painting glass vases and other containers by pouring acrylic paint in the bottom and swirling it around inside?? Well I really wanted to try it for myself, and boy am I glad I did!

This is my lovely creation!  However, I suck and forgot to take a before picture....

I chose to use a pearly white paint on this one because it already had a frosted finish with a pattern in it, so I wanted to highlight that.  And it definitely worked!  I know its only August, but I think this will make a cute Christmas decoration... picture it: red ribbon, and some holly coming out of it, pretty perfect right??

Well the painting processes was a lot harder than I thought it would be...  I had to use A LOT of paint, like half of my regular sized bottle, and this vase if fairly small.  But I think a big part of that was because this was a strange shape for a vase and I was wanting to cover all of the inside and not just a portion of it.  However, aside from the massive amount of paint it took to be able to maneuver the paint around inside by just rotating it, it wasn't that hard to get the painting done.

The long process came while it was drying.  That excess paint all started to pool in the bottom once I got the whole thing coated, and I had to keep draining it all out back into the bottle.  I ended up having to do this every few hours for a whole day to get rid of enough paint for the bottom to completely dry.  But on the bright side now I have a much more full bottle of paint again to use on future projects!

There are many more variations on this project out there, have you tried any? Please share, I will always appreciate comments, or suggestions for future projects!

A Girl and Her Glue: Part 2

Well as promised here is my second pinterest project that envolves making designs with glue! I think this one turned out a lot better than the first one, yay!

Here is the original pin that I recreated and added to:

Source: quirkability.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

And this is how my version turned out:

When I saw it with just the glue and no color at all, I was really discouraged with it, but the paint made all the difference and now I LOVE it!

Here's all that you will need:

• Canvas
• Liquid glue of any kind (again I used tacky glue)
• Paint and brush
• Optional: a design of some sort that you want to reproduce

If you want to know an easy way to transfer a printed design onto your canvas check out this post, which actually uses pictures from when I was doing this same project.

Once you have your design drawn or transfered onto your canvas, its time for glue!  Of course, if you want to skip the drawing and go straight for the glue, have at it! There is no wrong way to go about this.

However, after attempting this particular design I found that it is best to go for something with a lot less detail because as the glue dries and settles on the canvas it will spread out and parts of my design kind of became big blobs.  This ended up being okay, but I want to avoid this in the future.  I also noticed this as I was putting the glue on and ended up altering and simplifying the design a lot while I was glueing.

After the glue has completely dried, paint the entire canvas straight over the glue.  The glue will automatically make the paint look different on your design because of the different textures.  If you want, this can be your final step.  I think it looks really cute, but I was feeling adventurous and wanted to add more!

I blended in some light blue strips into my background color to give it more texture.  I love how this turned out on the canvas, but I didn't like how the stripes turned out on the tree.... So I took it yet another step further.

I painted over just the glue in a pearl colored metallic paint, and I love how it gave it a gentle silver look.

Hope you all have fun using glue in this excitingly creative way!

A Girl And Her Glue: Part 1

Lately I have seem several art projects on Pinterest that involve glue.  They all looked so cute and easy, so I had to give them a try myself!  Here is the first of two glue projects I have tried:

This is the original pin that I attempted to re-create:

Source: artclubblog.wordpress.com via Kristen on Pinterest

And here is how my version turned out:

I was not sure I liked it at first but it has really started to grow on me and now I am thinking about trying out a new design.

You will need:

• Liquid glue (I used tacky glue, but I'm sure even white school glue would work)
• A glue stick
• Cardboard or some other surface (I used the bottom of an empty case of ramen noodles)
• pen/marker
• Paint (black is what I would recommend after trying this out) and brush
• Paper towel
• Foil

First draw out a design on your cardboard.  I had to end up glueing a piece of paper over mine cause I messed up my drawing so many times.  But of course you can skip this step and go straight for the glue if you are confident in your free handing skills.

Next, cover your design in your liquid glue.  There is no need to be completely committed to your outlines, as you can see toward the top of my design I altered it a little as I was drawing with the glue.  Make sure that your glue is nice and thick so that it will still be prominent once you put the foil over the top of it.

Then, you have to wait for the glue to dry... and let me tell you it is just like watching a pot boil.  I ended up having to leave mine to dry over night for all of the glue to go clear.

Once it is dry, cover your whole surface with your glue stick and place your foil on top.  I found out the hard way that it is best to rest it on top and mold it around your design instead of laying it taunt and then trying to get it to fit around your glue.

Also, its best for your piece of foil to be larger than your cardboard so that you can fold over the sides and get a good finished look on the edges.

Finally, this was the part I had the hardest time with, painting it.  I found after a few times of messing it up, that it was best to add just a couple drops of water to your paint so its a bit runny.  Then paint one coat over the whole thing and let it sit a couple mins, enough time for some paint to dry but for it to still be very tacking.  Then wipe up the excess paint with a paper towel.  The paint should for the most part stay around the edges and in the creases of your design, otherwise letting the foil show through.

I hope this project inspires you to go get your glue on!  In the next couple days I will be posting another cool glue project to try as well.